Alemseged Lab

C. Becoming Human: First Steps

Jun 21, 2018

This is the first part of a documentary that examines the factors that caused us to split from the other great apes. “First Steps” explores the fossil of “Selam,” also known as “Lucy’s Child.” Paleoanthropologist Zeray Alemseged spent five years carefully excavating the sandstone-embedded fossil. NOVA’s cameras are there to capture the unveiling of the face, spine, and shoulder blades of this 3.3 million-year-old fossil child. And NOVA takes viewers “inside the skull” to show how our ancestors’ brains changed.

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